A constructive heuristic for two-dimensional bin packing

Two-dimensional bin packing is encountered in various applications where small rectangular items are packed into a minimum number of large rectangular objects (bins). Aiming at an optimal area utilization, the paper presents an effective constructive heuristic approach to two-dimensional bin packing. The heuristic approach integrates ranking, placement and search strategies along with an effective handling method of the remaining areas during the packing process. In order to obtain an optimal arrangement in a given area, all items are examined for possible positions and orientations using the search strategies. In addition, an effective handling method of the remaining areas is applied through appropriate partitioning and merging to minimize waste areas. Tests with a number of standard test and real world instances have shown that the performance of the proposed approach is superior to that of other approaches published.